Lil' Wayne featuring Juvenile and BG "Tha Block Is Hot"

Album: Tha Block Is Hot (Cash Money; 1999)
Songwriters: Dwayne Carter and Byron Thomas
R&B Peak Position: #24

"And we like, to dress in all black up in my residence/ Ain't got on no suits/ 'Cause we ain't tryin' to be presidents"

Back when selling over a million copies in one week had only been done by Garth Brooks and the only lollipop-lickin' happening on a rap record were delivered to "this kid named Scott", a pre-Martian Lil' Wayne officially made his solo debut to the world with Tha Block Is Hot. He was hardly an unknown newcomer, stealing the show on the hookiest parts of the Cash Money Records' clique's biggest records "Back That Azz Up" and "Bling, Bling", but Block marked the infant steps of the stand alone superstar he would come to be in less than a decade's time.

For the first single and title track, a then-seventeen year old Wayne quickly proved he needn't any track co-stars. Yeah, Juvenile and BG trade rhymes on the hook, but it was Weezy's rip and roar through three fiery verses that gave the record it's muscle. Matching Mannie Fresh's near-delirium Dirty South crackle of uzi-fire drums and scary movie keys in maddening intensity, Weezy hits heavy, barely seeming to breathe through narratives detailing the inner-city warfare and kilo-pushing celebrity of the New Orleans streets he calls home.

With proud boasts concerning his intimidating hood terror status ("See where I'm from we keep our guns out/ Dodgin' cops and burnin' blocks, cause we be thugged out..."), Wayne wards the weak-kneed away from his region. "Tha block is hot, tha block is hot hot hot...", he hisses from his porch, while decked out in all black and surrounded by a crew of the toughest looking baddies. Yeah his rhymebook was riddled with gangsta rap cliches, but beneath all the vicious threats and trap game talk, he nursed an old-soul confidence and hook-smart charisma that singled him out as one to watch.

It was clear, even back then, that this teenaged emcee was something special; little did we know just how special he was about to be.

Best Moment: The creepy chants that end the record (3:47)



DL: "Tha Block Is Hot" (YFH)